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Swipe Out Hunger

Purdue students strive to aid hunger issues by encouraging their peers to swipe out hunger.

A group of students lead by Peter Bender, came up with a philanthropic solution to wasting left over meal swipes at the end of each week.

"We knew that we always had left over swipes," Bender says. "So we thought what if some of that money could go to feed hungry people."

Bender and a few of his friends worked for 2 years to develop a model that would give funds to local and national hunger relief without putting Purdue in a financial bind.

"We knew they wouldn’t let us do it if it cost them extra money," Bender says.

The plan they implemented works like this. Each student on campus purchases a meal plan. They can purchase X number of swipes per week. Each time a student swipes their meal card they are able to choose five items. The group had donation cards made and placed at each convenient food location. Upon swiping their card students were then able to have the option of choosing one donation card as one of their five items. From that donation card the university gave 25 cents to the initiative which is the average cost of one food item.

The group had their first test run in late April and got rid of 5,000 donation cards. 60% of the funds went to the local food shelter for a program that provides food for needy school children and 40% of the funds were given to Heifer international, an organization relieving food poverty worldwide.